After Nero left his office, the headmaster sat in silence for a long moment. His fingers still tapped a slow rhythm on the desk, his eyes fixed on the door through which the boy had departed.
A new era. A storm. A boy who seems at the heart of it all.
He rose from his chair, moving to the window. Below, the academy grounds stretched in perfect order—students training, walking, living their lives unaware of the currents moving beneath the surface. He watched them for a moment, then turned away.
There was someone he needed to see.
He didn't take a car or a tram. He simply stepped outside the academy gates and, with a slight exertion of his will, moved. The world blurred around him, distance meaning nothing to a man of his power. In moments, he stood before a private mansion on the outskirts of the imperial capital—a place of quiet luxury, hidden from public view.
